


Timer on your soul

by Winner_of_the_disability_bingo



Series: Soulmate September 2020 [2]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26241352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winner_of_the_disability_bingo/pseuds/Winner_of_the_disability_bingo
Summary: Soulmate September day 2 - There is a timer on your wrist counting down until you meet your soulmateThere was a dark red timer on Lucy's wrist. It reaches zero one day in Hargeon.
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Series: Soulmate September 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904476
Comments: 4
Kudos: 103





	Timer on your soul

For as long as Lucy could remember, there was a timer on her wrist. It was there when she was born, and it would be there for the rest of her life. It counted down the years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds until she met her soulmate.

The dark red timer wrapped around her wrist would determine the way her life would go. At first, Lucy had been excited. She would get to know whom she would spend the rest of her life with. Then, she was anxious. What if her soulmate was cruel? What if they didn’t accept her? What if they treated her the way her father did, like a doll, or a political tool? Eventually, she had come to accept it. Soulmates weren’t everything. If they truly were right for her, then she could be with them. If fate had gotten it wrong, then she could just leave.

She knew that she would meet her soulmate when she was sixteen. Her father held off on introducing her to any potential suitors for that reason. Personally, Lucy didn’t think her soulmate would be one of the stiff, arrogant politicians and businessmen her father tended to spend time with. If anyone would match her personality, it would be someone with just as much passion for adventure. Someone who didn’t mind it when she got loud. Someone who accepted both her and her spirits. That kind of person wouldn’t be hanging around in empty mansions all day, filling out paperwork.

When she was young, she proudly held up her timer for everyone to see. She showed it to the staff, businessmen in meetings, almost everyone she met. The staff showed her their marks in return. The librarians were soulmates. Two of the cooks had yet to meet their soulmate and three didn’t have timers. Her tutor’s timer was faded and grey. He told her it was because his soulmate had died.

One day, she had asked her mother why some people didn’t have a timer. Her mother had said that it was because those people would never meet their soulmates. Lucy’s mother and father didn’t have timers. They were in an arranged marriage. They loved each other, yes, but they weren’t soulmates. Lucy had been upset but her mother had reassured her that soulmates weren’t the centre of someone’s world. The Gods had decided that some people belonged with each other and the timers were just a helping hand. they weren’t necessary, and they were even sometimes wrong.

Lucy had been horrified to learn that celestial spirits didn’t have soulmates at all. Aquarius had said it was because the spirits didn’t follow the same rules as humans. They didn’t need soulmates. Especially when, if the soulmate were human, they would outlive them.

It had made sense, but Lucy had still been upset. After spending a lot of time asking questions and doing math, Lucy had drawn her own timer on her wrist, under the one she already had. Instead of counting down, the timer Lucy had made showed the date and time that she and Aquarius had met.

When Lucy showed Aquarius the timer, the spirit had started crying. When she was done, Aquarius had called Lucy and idiot and reminded her that soulmates were romantic relationships. She had been embarrassed when she remembered that, but the smile on Aquarius’ face had been worth it.

A day before her mother died, Lucy’s timer started flickering an odd colour. She couldn’t find her mother anywhere and the staff had no idea what was happening. For hours, Lucy watched the timer flicker. Red, to black, to white, to, grey, to orange, to yellow, to green, to blue, to purple. The colours flickered without any pattern.

Eventually, the flickering stopped, and the timer settled on its usual dark red. The next day, Lucy got news that her mother had returned from her trip, and that she was dead.

When her mother died, Lucy had held on to her timer hard enough that her hand turned purple. She reassured herself that when she met her soulmate, she wouldn’t feel so empty anymore.

She went through almost every book in the mansion library trying to figure out what had happened to her soulmate that day. The only thing that was similar was the result of a lost magic. When someone used or was affected by a spell that controlled or altered time and space the soulmate would experience discolouration in their mark for as long as the spell was in effect.

On the day she would meet her soulmate, Lucy was ecstatic. Hargeon wasn’t the kind of place where amazing things happened. It was a crooked harbour town with more criminals than citizens. Sure, the police tried, but they weren’t very good at their jobs and frankly, they were probably just as corrupt as the rest of the place.

Her bad deal with the shop owner had ruined her good mood and she stopped paying proper attention to her timer. Under the bridge she was walking on, Lucy heard a group of girls screaming about Salamander.

Lucy recognised the name immediately. Salamander was a powerful Fairy Tail wizard. He was notorious for destroying almost everything in his path, and never getting the full reward. Those who met him said he was one of the best people they had ever met, though they never specified why. It was especially odd when you considered that he destroyed most things. In every interview and article, they said that you just had to meet him to understand it.

Maybe Hargeon was the kind of town where amazing things happened after all. There was only one way to find out.

Lucy ran through the streets towards where she had heard the girls screaming. If she could get on Salamander’s good side, she’d be sure to get into Fairy Tail. Getting into Fairy Tail would earn her a powerful reputation for the rest of her life.

The second she saw the man in the centre of the crowd, Lucy just knew she was in love. She didn’t know why or how. Her timer hadn’t gone off so it was obvious he wasn’t her soulmate. He wasn’t even that good-looking. The way he smiled reminded her of her father’s acquaintances, only looking for things that will benefit them and uncaring of how it affected others. Something about him just seemed off. However, Lucy found herself ignoring all that and trying to get closer to the man. Something in the back of her mind told her the situation was wrong, but she pushed that part away.

After who knows how long of Lucy’s thoughts being filled with this unnerving stranger, a boy with shockingly pink hair pushed through the crowd. Lucy didn’t hear the words the boy had said but her attention was still drawn to him. The second their eyes met, Lucy’s wrist pulsed.

The next morning, Lucy found herself being dragged through the streets of Hargeon by her soulmate. The police were behind them, but Natsu was smiling and he was taking her to join Fairy Tail and she knew things would be all right.

**Author's Note:**

> As i was posting this I realized that there was absolutely no mention of Happy... just assume he's there.


End file.
